Videos on Politics And Government

What Voters Really Want from Election 2010Jill Schlesinger hits the streets to see what issues voters want addressed following the midterm elections, no matter who winds up in the winner's column.Running time: 64 seconds

Prop 21: Car Taxes to Save California State ParksOnce considered the best in the nation, California's state parks are falling apart due to chronic underfunding and mismanagement. The park system has a backlog of $1 billion in deferred maintenance and, last year, 150 of California's parks closed part-time or suffered service reductions.What's the solution? Supporters of Prop 21 believe that the answer lies in a new car tax. If Prop 21 passes in November, California drivers will have to pony up an additional 18 dollars fee.Running time: 455 seconds

Libertarian Party Candidate Dale Ogden on the California Governor's Race"I don't care if the union thugs hate my guts. I don't care if the government employees hate my guts", says Dale Ogden, the Libertarian Party candidate in the California governor's race. Ogden vows to get the state's fiscal house back in order by returning government spending to at least 1998 levels.Running time: 589 seconds

Steve Malange on the Big Government Conspiracy"Today's 'Tea Party' movement germinated from local taxpayer groups focused on issues like school spending and property taxes", Steve Malanga, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of the new book, Shakedown.Running time: 409 seconds

Proposition 19: Legalizing Marijuana in CaliforniaOn November 2, 2010, California voters will decide whether or not to legalize marijuana. If passed, Proposition 19 would control marijuana like alcohol, allowing adults 21 years of age and over to possess up to an ounce of pot for personal consumption and grow marijuana at a private residence in a space of up to 25 square feet. The initiative would also allow local governments to tax and regulate the commercial cultivation, transport, and sale of marijuana.Running time: 327 seconds

3 Reasons Obama's Education Vision Deserves an FPresident Barack Obama is making his bid to be the education president. At the start of NBCS recent Education Nation summit in New York, Obama appeared on the Today Show and touted what he claimed were awide-ranging set of reforms to improve Americas K-12 schools.Yet Obamas education vision deserves an F for at least three reasonsRunning time: 161 seconds

Author Paul Cantor on a Capitalism and LiteraturePaul Cantor, professor of English at the University of Virginia, is an anomaly in world of literary criticism and the study of popular culture. While many academics employ an economic approach to the study of literature, they are invariably informed by Marxist critiques. Cantor, who attended the New York lectures of Ludwig von Mises as a teenager, argues that there is much to be learned from a pro-capitalist reading of literature. In August, Cantor sat down with Reason senior editor Michael C..Running time: 404 seconds

Pension Crisis in the State of California, USAFor months, California has been a laughingstock state, unable to pass an annual budget, facing a declaration of "fiscal emergency" fighting over pay cuts and furloughs for government employees, threatening to issue IOUs to creditors. With a "framework" budget agreement expected to pass later this week, Reason.tv looks at why this long fight over a bloated budget may be good news for California's future.Running time: 369 seconds

Progress Party Leader Siv Jensen on Norway's Myths and RealitiesIn a country of exceptionally high rates of personal taxation and home to one of the world's most generous welfare states, Norway's Progress Party, which describes itself as a "classical liberal" organization committed to "personal freedom", is something of an anomaly. But it is an increasingly powerful anomaly, now ranking as the country's second biggest political party.Running time: 337 seconds

Governmental Waste Issues: Senators Blanche Lincoln and Patty MurrayReason.tv presents Citizens Against Government Waste's Porkers of the Month for September 2010: Senators Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.)! At a time when the country is massively in debt, and taxpayers are sick of inefficient and wasteful government spending, these two don't just embrace pork, they've made it a campaign slogan.Running time: 69 seconds

Salary Scandal: Arrests in Bell, CaliforniaThe mayor and seven current and former officials of Bell, Calif., were arrested on criminal charges of misappropriating more than $5.5 million. Bill Whitaker reports.Running time: 132 seconds

Chris Chocola Talks About Club for GrowthIf Republicans take control of the House of Representatives in November, Chris Chocola of the Club for Growth worries they'll "go Washington" like they have in the past. Chocola's D.C.-based group is working to change the "gene pool of Congress" by funding candidates who want to cut spending, lower taxes, and promote free markets.Running time: 408 seconds

George Thomas on the 14th Amendment"To take the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment seriously is to take economic liberties seriously", says George Thomas, an associate professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. Thomas notes that, for most of our nation's history, there wasn't a rigid distinction between civil and economic liberties.Running time: 613 seconds

Interview with the Authors of Give Us LibertySen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is the latest victim of the Tea Party insurgency that's trying to take over the Republican Party. Tea Party favorite Joe Miller defeated Murkowski in The North Star State's primary by hammering away at (among other things) her support for TARP and lack of zeal for overturning Obamacare. Miller joins a new breed of anti-spending candidates such as Maine's Paul LePage, Kentucky's Rand Paul, Florida's Marco Rubio, and South Carolina.Running time: 573 seconds

How the Federal Funds in Florida Are Used for Sex EducationFederal funds for sex education are spent on abstinence programs which teach schoolchildren inaccurate and misleading information. In Florida, which has the second highest rate of HIV transmission of anywhere in the country, kids need sex education.Running time: 402 seconds

Conscious PoliticsWhether you're a Democrat, Republican or Independent, these days, politics seems to be all about the he said, she said. To get beyond partisan backbiting, we traveled to the 2008 DNCC to see if there's such a thing as conscious politics.Running time: 623 seconds

How the Commerce Clause Made the Congress All-PowerfulThe Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power to "regulate commerce. . . among the several States" and for more than 100 years federal lawmakers invoked it for a very narrow purpose - to prevent states from imposing trade barriers on each other. But today members of Congress act as if it gives them the authority to do just about anything; including forcing you to eat your vegetables.Running time: 606 seconds

William Voegeli on Never Enough: America's Limitless Welfare State"The denial of the possibility that there is an endpoint [to the welfare state] is crucial to the liberal enterprise." says Dr. William Voegeli, author of the new book, Never Enough: America's Limitless Welfare State and a visiting scholar at Claremont McKenna College's Henry Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom in the Modern World.Running time: 490 seconds

John J. Pitney on How Obama Revived the Freedom Movement"The greatest gift to the libertarian electorate was the Obama administration", says John J. Pitney Jr., a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and a Reason contributing editor. "At a time when you have massive expansion of government power and massive government spending, people start to see the downsides...."Running time: 407 seconds

Shirley Svorny on the Economics of Healthcare RegulationObamaCare expands coverage to millions of Americans, but, warns Professor Shirley Svorny, without stronger measures to expand the supply of healthcare providers and contain costs, we can expect a physician shortage and soaring premiums. The California State University, Northridge economist suggests options for lowering costs and dismantling state-level regulations that restrain competition and innovation.Running time: 295 seconds

Union Jobs vs. Lives of ChildrenCongress has passed a $26 billion aid package that is intended to save the jobs of thousands of teachers, nurses, and other public-sector employees. To critics who call the measure a "special interest" bill, President Barack Obama says, "I suppose if America's children and the safety of our communities are your special interest, then it is a special interest bill."Running time: 449 seconds